Name: Mushroom and Barley Soup (Похлёбка)
Yield: 6 to 8 Servings
Cuisine: Russia
Ingredients: Sour cream (optional); 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1 large potato, coarsely chopped; 6 cups rich beef stock; 4 tablespoons butter; 2 bay leaves; 2 carrots, scraped and sliced; 1 pound mushrooms, trimmed and sliced; 2 cloves garlic, crushed; 2 onions, chopped; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon snipped fresh dill (or ¾ teaspoon dried dill); ½ cup raw pearl barley; freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation info

6 to 8
Servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Taste of Russia

By Darra Goldstein

Published 1983

About

Pokhlyobka is a typical hearty peasant soup. In true rustic style, it is usually eaten with black bread generously rubbed with raw garlic. Real garlic lovers simply eat the garlic straight: take a whole peeled clove of garlic and dip it in salt before biting into it. This kind of garlic eating is best done among friends, however. It wasn’t until I got to know my Russian hosts well that we dared eat the pungent cloves together.